


Ms. Liu

by hoodenpyle



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Gen, Other, The Machine - Freeform, bear (person of interest) - Freeform, bear the dog - Freeform, just helping the doggie, sweet old grandma, the machine helps bear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-30 01:11:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10149695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoodenpyle/pseuds/hoodenpyle
Summary: Sometimes Team Machine is gone for a long time and Bear gets left behind. Until one day, a little old lady stops to help him and discovers something she wasn't supposed to.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Probably the only thing that bothered me about POI was when they would be gone forever and leave Bear alone. So I decided to imagine a sweet old lady who helps him out. kinda like Bear's own Claire Temple haha

“Ms. Liu, you forgot your umbrella!” a young boy ran out the store front. Ms. Liu stopped and turned, as quickly as her elderly body would allow. 

Ah, xie xie, Michael,” she reached a wrinkled hand out to take the long black umbrella from the shop boy. 

“Do you need any help with those groceries?” Michael offered, gesturing to the large sack she balanced in her other arm.

“No, I think I’ve got it,” Ms. Liu smiled. She clumsily shifted the sack in her arms as she opened her umbrella. It wasn’t raining very hard at the moment, but you could never tell with this New York weather. She nodded to Michael and continued down the side of the street. 

Michael watched her walk a little ways, making sure his favorite customer was okay. She came into the store twice a week and always gave him a quarter for a tip. Of course, it wasn’t much for this day in age, but he appreciated the gesture. He didn’t have a grandmother of his own, so he had a particular fondess for Ms. Liu. 

Now with umbrella in hand, Ms. Liu walked slowly down the street with a soft smile on her lined face. She breathed in the smells of the rain and the busy Chinatown street. She had lived in New York City for a long time, but she still loved to absorb the atmosphere. Now that she lived alone, the bustle of the city was a welcome comfort to her otherwise lonely apartment. As she turned down Doyers street and passed the old entrance to a barber shop, like she always does, she heard a faint yelping sound. 

She paused to listen, trying to peer past the dark stairwell down. She heard the yelping again, and decided to inspect it. Using her umbrella as a cane to balance, she tottered down the stairs to a dimly lit hallway. The yelping echoed down the hallway, and she continued.

“Hello?” she called. “Who is there?” She approached a very old looking vending machine. It was tilted about a foot away from the concrete wall. 

“How odd,” she murmured to herself in Chinese. Just then, a yelp sounded from next to the vending machine, and a shadow moved suddenly. 

“Oh!” Ms. Liu exclaimed and took a step backwards. As she steadied herself, she peered at the shadow. 

It was a dog! 

It was huge and brown, and it was stuck between the vending machine and the wall. Most of the dog was through the small space, but it seemed like the vending machine had tried to close like a door, and caught the dog by its hips. The dog pleaded with its dark eyes at Ms. Liu. 

“Okay, I suppose I can help the doggie,” she said sweetly. She put her bag and umbrella on the ground and made her way to the machine. 

“You know, I am not very strong,” she said to the dog as she gave the machine a tug. It didn’t budge. She tried again, and it creaked toward her by an inch. 

“Well?” she looked expectantly at the dog. He just looked back at her and whined. 

“You are no help,” she gave the machine a tug, already feeling tired in her old arms. 

The vending machine moved forward another inch. The dog wiggled again, and finally was free. He jumped happily in a circle around her. 

“Well aren’t you a happy huge dog!” she exclaimed. “Now where did you come from?”

She peered into the even darker space that continued past the vending machine. The dog went to her bag and started sniffing intently. 

“Oh no, no!” she exclaimed softly to the dog. She shooed him away from her groceries, and he trotted over to the dark open space. 

“What, is that where you live?” she gestured. The dog just ran down into the darkness and barked at her. Ms. Liu just shrugged. She had nothing to get back to, and she felt a bit excited to find some adventure. 

“You better not lead me to my death, doggie,” she murmured in Chinese as she followed the dog. He led her down multiple stairwells, all poorly lit. “It is going to be very hard for me to get back up these stairs.” she said breathlessly as they reached the very bottom. After catching her breath, she surveyed the huge room she had arrived in. 

Old brick and tile curved into low, detailed tile. A single subway car sat idle on the tracks directly across the room. Curious, she looked in the car to see more wires and computers in one place than she had ever seen. 

“Is this where you live, huh?” she looked around, taking in the odd underground place. The dog ran to a corner of the room and barked. He put his front paws down and whined. 

“What is it?” she said, making her way to him. Behind him was a huge bin full of food. She realized what the dog was doing, and obliged. 

“You are one smart doggie,” she said as she scooped some food onto the floor for him. He ate it all so quickly, she dumped some more on the floor. She let him eat until he was full, and then watched as he trotted over to a huge dog bed alongside the subway car. He plopped down with a big sigh. 

“What, you are not even going to help me back up the stairs?” she said expectantly. 

He rolled his big brown head in her direction and sighed again. 

“Fine, some help you are,” she muttered in Chinese and made her way back to the staircase. Just as she was about to take a step up, she felt something warm slip under her hand. The dog stood beside her, offering his support. 

“Okay, I have to admit,” she shook her head. “You are smart.” 

He helped her ascend the stairs, stopping when she needed to stop. 

“You are perfect for a grandma like me,” she said in Chinese. “Do you speak Chinese?”

“Zuo!” she commanded.

The dog just stared at her. 

“What about English?” she said in English. 

“Sit!” she commanded again. Nothing from the dog.

“Hmm. Well, we’ll figure it out.” 

The rest of the way, she tried to say sit in every language she could remember - which really only consisted of Chinese, English, Spanish, and German - with no luck. They finally reached the vending machine. It was closed, but the dog sniffed and whined at a seam in the wall. 

“Well, shit,” she cursed in Chinese. She ran her hands all along the wall and the back of the machine before finding a little latch.  
With a pull, the vending machine creaked open. She stepped outside, but the dog stayed behind. 

“Well, I suppose I will see you around,” she picked up her groceries and umbrella. “Maybe I will come check on you next week.” 

The dog let out a yip and sat there panting, but by the way he held his mouth, it looked like he was smiling. 

Ms. Liu smiled back. “You’re welcome!”


	2. Chapter 2

The second time she went to the grocery store down the street, Ms. Liu took a detour to visit the vending machine. It was very much closed, and she saw no sign of the dog. She pulled three quarters from her handbag and dropped it in the slot. The machine blinked at her, waiting for her selection. She dialed the numbers for a dusty candy bar. The vending machine rattled as the coil moved to drop the candy bar.   
  
But nothing else happened. 

She twisted her mouth in a bit of disappointment, and waited for a moment. 

Still nothing. 

“Hope you are okay, doggie,” she whispered and went back out into the street. 

A couple more weeks past and there was no sign of the dog. After the sixth try - and sixth dusty candy bar - she gave up on the vending machine. 

One sunny Wednesday, as she was checking out for her biweekly grocery store visit, Michael came running from the back of the store.

“Ms. Liu! Wait, don’t forget your special order!” he exclaimed.

“Michael, lower your voice,” chided Mr. Yeun, the store clerk, as he put Ms. Liu’s lettuce in a sack.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “ I just thought you wouldn’t want to forget this.”

He laid a ten pound bag of dog food on the counter. 

“Also, when did you get a dog?” he asked curiously. Mr. Yeun gave him a look that scolded him again for being nosy. 

Ms. Liu raised her eyebrows at the bag on the counter.

“Uh,” she hesitated at first, but then decided she didn’t need to explain herself. “No, I didn’t get a dog, I’m just helping out a sick friend in my building. He needs help looking after the dog while he is ill.” She said, feigning confidence. 

“Oh that makes sense because I didn’t recognize the name on the reciept,” Michael nodded with understanding. He handed it to her, and she immediately scanned it for a name. 

The receipt said the order was called in by someone named Thornhill. Just one 10-lb bag of dog food, already paid for, and the pick-up name just said her’s: “Liu, Chun”

“Oh, and Michael,” she called to the young boy before he ran back into the stockroom. “Here you go,” she said with a big smile as she handed him a quarter. 

“Oh, that’s okay, Ms. Liu,” he waved her hand away. “The man who called in your order, Mr. Thornhill, said that you need to make sure to have two quarters on you when you go to feed his dog.” he stated, seeming to be okay without his quarter tip. 

Ms. Liu just frowned. “Okay then,” she murmured to herself. She hoisted her usual bag of groceries on one side and balanced the dog food on the other. 

“Do you need any help?” Mr. Yeun asked with his brow furrowed in concern for the little old lady. 

“No, no, I’ll be fine,” she replied. “I’m not going very far.”

She made her way down to the vending machine, and put her groceries down. She stared at the aging machine for a little while before plopping her two quarters in the slot. Her hand hovered above the buttons for a moment as she struggled to think of what to put in. 

“Well, it’s probably some kind of code,” she huffed to herself. “Otherwise anyone could open if it they ordered an Oh Henry.” 

She crossed her arms in front of her chest in frustration and glanced down at the dog food bag as if it could give her an answer. She studied the front of it. It was a simple white bag that had the brand “Beneful” plastered across it. A happy looking dog was pictured to the side while an assortment of vegetables and meats were pictured falling into a bowl. The barcode was stamped along the side, but suddenly she noticed something strange. On the top corner, she saw something written in permanent marker. She held on to the vending machine for support as she bent over to read it. 

“3141” was all that was written. 

“This could be nothing,” she said to herself, standing upright. After staring at the written numbers for a little while longer, she decided it could be something. 

“Plus I could always come back with more quarters and try again,” she convinced herself. She tapped the numbers into the vending machine keypad. 

Suddenly, the machine whirred to life. It creaked open, revealing the dark passage way she had gone down before. 

She tucked her groceries in a corner before picking up the dog food and descending into the old subway tunnel. 

The dog greeted her with a friendly bark and his habit of jumping around in a circle. 

"Hello to you too!" Ms. Liu returned the greeting. She made her way to the corner with his dog food bin and saw it was empty. After dumping the new dog food in, she started to scoop food onto the floor. The dog ate and then happily sat at her feet. 

“Oh so now you sit for me,” she chuckled and patted his head. “Where is your owner?” 

The dog just tilted his head and smiled his funny dog smile. 

“Well, I hope they have been taking care of you since the last time I saw you,” she said. She scanned the strange underground room again. She noticed a silver bowl that was flipped over half-hidden behind his big navy dog bed.

“Silly dog, why didn’t you tell me you had a bowl this whole time?”

She tottered over to the bowl and flipped it right side up with a grunt. 

“I will use this next time,” she wagged a finger in the dog’s face. She patted his head again. 

“I don’t see any tags on that huge collar of your’s, but I assume you have a name,” she went on. “And maybe I will learn your language too.”

The dog ran in a circle around her before trotting back over to his bed. 

“Are you telling me to leave?” she crossed her arms across her chest. “Well, okay then.”

She hobbled to the stairs, and just like last time, the dog was at her side. 

When they reached the vending machine, she scratched his ears and told him he was a good dog. 

“See you next time!”


	3. Chapter 3

Every few weeks, Ms. Liu would receive a special order of dog food with her groceries and she would take care of her dog friend. Every time, it was ordered by someone named Thornhill. She never saw another mysterious code written on the dog food bag, but the first code always worked. 

She had determined that the dog had multiple owners, as she had observed a rotating assortment of equipment and cots and such in the subway tunnel. Sometimes she would play with the dog for a little while by just sitting in a chair and playing fetch. One time, she offered to go on a walk with him by picking up his leash, but he didn’t budge from his bed until she approached the stairs. 

Ms. Liu still couldn’t figure out what language the dog understood. She had studied the word “sit” in twenty different languages so far. None of them took. It certainly wasn’t English, so she resigned to speaking Chinese to him most of the time. 

“One day, I will learn your name and your language, and we will be proper friends,” she told him as she patted his head. He responded by rolling on his back for a belly rub.

“Oh no, I can’t bend down and pet you when you’re on the floor!” she chided with a smile. “I would never get back up!”

The dog rolled back on his feet and stuck his head under her hand. She let out a laugh as she obliged him one more pat. 

The next week, instead of getting dog food, she had a special order of hollandaise sauce. It was ordered by Thornhill, but it didn’t come with anything else. 

Puzzled, she went by the vending machine only to find a city utility man cleaning up in the hallway. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she just went straight home. 

The hollandaise sauce sat in her fridge for several days. She would sometimes pick it up and thoroughly examine the label. Eventually, she removed the label to see if there were any hidden messages. There were none. 

She stared at the label for a few more moments before the idea dawned on her. She put the bottle back on the counter and went to her bookshelf. She scanned the shelves until she finally found the title she was looking for. “Visit Holland!” it said in a font that drew the eye. She flipped through the book, skimming the chapters about the Dutch. Since Ms. Liu didn’t have a computer of any kind, she made a special trip to the library to learn some Dutch. 

Finally, she got another order of dog food, and as she descended into the subway tunnel, she proudly announced to the dog - in Dutch - that she had learned his language. 

“Zitten!” she commanded as she held his food bowl above his head. The dog promptly sat for her. 

“Look at that,” she chuckled to herself as he ate. “You are Dutch.” 

She settled into her usual chair by the table with computers. It looked like a work station, especially with the glass display board next to it. Sometimes when she came down, there were random pictures of people on it.

“How about we try different names?” she looked at the dog, who just sat at her feet and stared. 

“Is your name...Buddy?” she asked. “Fido. No? Okay how about Cujo?”

She laughed at that one. 

“Of course not, you are too sweet.”

Ms. Liu went on for another five minutes rattling off dog names, most of them in English but she mentioned a few Chinese names too. None of them stuck. Eventually she gave up and started telling him a story from her childhood about a dog who used to run through the village and scare chickens. 

“You seem like you would scare chickens,” she said as she patted his head. 

“I should go now,” she stood. The dog stood with her and followed her to the stairs.

“Brave hond,” she said in Dutch as she left him. “Thankyou for being such good company for an old lady like me.”


	4. Chapter 4

It was winter and Ms. Liu moved a bit slower in the cold. She only came to get groceries in person every other week. Michael brought her anything she needed in between, and she definitely tipped him more than a quarter. 

One day, Michael brought her the familiar bag of dog food. 

“Is your friend still sick?” he asked as he set the bags on her counter. 

“Yes,” she said absentmindedly. Upon seeing the dog food, she was worried about the effort it would take her to get down the street to see her dog friend. 

“Maybe you should ask someone else to take care of your friend’s dog?” Michael suggested, patting the elderly woman’s thin shoulder. He did his best to be respectful of her independence but he noticed she wasn’t as strong as she used to be. 

“Oh, it isn’t a problem,” she patted his hand and smiled. She sent him on his way with twenty dollars, and as soon as the door closed, she wearily bundled up for the cold. 

\- - 

Reese leaned heavily on her shoulder as they made their way back down to the subway. Shaw frantically pressed the code to the vending machine. 

“Keep pressure on it, we’re almost there,” she commanded Reese, in her special way of being comforting.

“Ya think,” he grunted as he pressed a hand to the bullet wound in his side. She glanced back down the hallway, hoping to see Root and Finch following close behind. She didn’t see them yet, and she didn’t have time to wait. Her focus right now was on getting Reese patched up. 

As they descended the dark stairs, she heard voices coming from the tunnel.

“Wait,” she whispered harshly. They both stopped and listened. 

It was one voice, soft and feminine sounding. 

“Can you understand what they’re saying?” Reese whispered to her.

“Sounds like they’re speaking Chinese,” Shaw replied after a few more seconds of listening. 

Reese leaned away from Shaw and instead leaned against the brick wall as he slowly drew his gun. Shaw drew her’s and confidently stepped down the last few steps into the open subway room. 

As she rounded the corner, she saw a small Chinese lady sitting at Finch’s table. She was facing out towards Bear and talking to him. Bear immediately noticed her presence and bounded over to her. 

“Oh!” the old lady exclaimed and stood to her feet with her arms up. Even though she looked so small in her big coat, Shaw leveled her gun at her. 

“Who are you?” Shaw demanded in a low, threatening tone. 

“My name is Chun Liu, and -” suddenly the old woman paused and frowned. “And I’ve been taking care of your dog while you have abandoned him down here!” She finished angerily. “And you have no right to wave that gun in my face after all you’ve asked me to do, anyway.”

“What?” Shaw peered at her, utterly confused. 

“One of you must be Thornhill,” she gestured between Shaw and Reese. “You’ve been asking me to feed this dog for the past year.”

Ms. Liu planted her feet and crossed her arms in defiance. 

“So, you are welcome.” 

Shaw heard Reese start to chuckle behind her. She whipped her head around while still keeping her gun level with Ms. Liu. 

“What is so funny?” she seethed at him. 

“Sorry, I just,” Reese gasped between a scoff. “The Machine has been asking this lady to take care of Bear for us.”

“Bear? Is that his name?” Ms Liu turned to the dog, suddenly sweet. “Bear!”

The dog came prancing up to the lady and sat in front of her. 

“Bear, you are the sweet hond!” Ms. Liu said, patting him on the head. 

Shaw and Reese exchanged looks of absolute confusion. 

“Well, if the Machine and Bear like her…” Reese shrugged. 

Shaw shook her head. 

“Ma’am,” she turned back to the elderly woman. “Ma’am, we are going to need you to leave.”

“All right,” Ms. Liu sighed as she scratched Bear’s ears one more time. “It was nice to meet you Bear. You are a very good friend for an old lady like me.” 

She tottered past Shaw and gave her a mean look. When she passed Reese, her eyes grew wide at his bleeding wound. Before she could speak, Reese just tapped his forehead like he was tipping an invisible cap. 

“Thanks for your help,” he said with a half smile. Ms. Liu just nodded, eyes still wide. 

As soon as she reached the staircase, Bear trotted over to be her aid. Shaw and Reese watched in astonishment as Bear helped this little old lady all the way up the stairs and out the vending machine passage. 

“Bye, Bear,” they heard her coo to him. “I probably won’t see you again. I’m getting very old, and your life seems too adventurous for me.”

They heard the vending machine close and Bear came bounding back down the stairs. Reese made himself comfortable on a bench as Shaw grabbed some medical supplies. While Shaw was patching him up, Bear sat right next to Reese with his goofy dog smile. 

“Did you make a new friend?” Reese said softly to him as he rubbed one of Bear’s ears. 

“That had to be one of the strangest things I’d ever seen,” Shaw stated, shaking her head still in disbelief. 

“I wouldn’t worry about her too much,” Reese assured. “She didn’t even ask us any questions about the Machine or our operation.”

“Yeah, I’m not worried about that grandma,” Shaw scoffed. “She’s probably gonna kick the bucket soon anyway.” 

Reese threw Shaw a glare. 

"That isn't nice to say about someone who's been taking care of our dog."

"You mean MY dog," Shaw muttered. 

They heard footsteps echoing down the staircase and both of them looked up to see Root and Finch enter.

“Is everything all right, Ms. Shaw?” Finch immediately noticed Reese’s wound.

“He’s a big boy, Harry,” Root interjected. “Plus, Shaw is a great doctor.” 

She smiled at Shaw sweetly. 

“Good to see you both are alive,” Root added. 

“Hey, you guys wanna hear about Bear’s grandma?” Shaw asked sarcastically. 

\- - 

A few months later, Ms. Liu sat looking out her window as spring came to New York City once again. When the snow lifted, she felt like it was lifted from her bones. 

She no longer took her walks to the grocery store. Michael didn’t work there anymore, and Ms. Liu was visited daily by home health nurses. They were nice, but they weren’t very fun to talk to. She missed her dog friend, Bear, and her little adventure. 

She continued to learn Dutch to keep her mind sharp because she felt it fading. If she ever met Bear again, she figured she could tell him stories in his own language. She once tried to tell one of her nurses about her adventure with Bear and the mysterious Thornhills. Ms. Liu could tell they didn’t take her seriously. 

One particularly sunny day, she decided she wanted to go for a walk. She asked the morning nurse to help her get ready. After a little fuss, the nurse finally agreed to help Ms. Liu on her walk. They headed down Doyers street, and Ms. Liu saw the familiar hallway. 

“Would you find me some water?” she said to her nurse. “I’ll wait here. I’m just suddenly parched."

The nurse reluctantly agreed. Once she was alone, she carefully made her way to the vending machine. 

To her surprise, the vending machine was gone. It was tilted on its side and looked like someone had blown it from the wall. The gaping hole dared her to enter. She hugged the wall as she descended. It was still dimly lit, and she could smell a faint smoky odor. She finally reached the subway tunnel and gasped as she looked around. 

There were bullet holes everywhere. The subway car was gone. In fact, it looked like it had gone through the once-bricked wall beside it. Smudges of gunpowder and scorch marks were scattered everywhere. Bear’s belongings were nowhere to be seen. The computers on the table were smashed. In fact, the only thing left unbroken on the table was a large recording machine. 

A swell of sadness filled her chest. She let a few tears fall as she wondered about what horrible thing could have happened to Bear and his friends. 

“Ms. Liu!” her moment of sadness was interrupted by the nurse’s frantic calls.

“Down here,” she responded. 

“Oh, Ms. Liu, how did you end up all the way down here?” the nurse spoke as though she was talking to a child. Ms. Liu knew she didn’t mean any harm, and that they only thought of her as an old, fragile woman. 

“My friend lived down here,” she responded meekly. 

The nurse looked around the torn apart room, confused. 

“Well, let’s get you home.” 

She helped Ms. Liu back up the stairs and back to her apartment. 

 

One month later, Ms. Liu laid in her bed. The nurses didn’t come anymore. 

Now it was just the hospice people who said they wanted to make her comfortable. Her mind faded in and out every day. She didn’t really have any visitors. 

Michael came a few times, but he just started high school and he was too busy. 

One day, one of the hospice ladies brought in a fancy bouquet of flowers. 

It was a beautiful arrangement of peonies - her favorite. She set them down on Ms. Liu’s side table and gave her the card. Ms. Liu carefully opened the card and tried to read it, but she realized she couldn’t see it very well.

“I’m sorry,” she said to the woman. “Could you help me read this?”

“Of course,” the woman replied gently as she took the card. “It says: Bear is fine. Thank-you for all your help.”

Ms. Liu frowned and then asked, “Who is it from?”

“It just says Thornhill.”

"Good," Ms. Liu smiled widely as she rested her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ended up being way more sad than I meant it to be. Also, I love sappy!Machine - if you couldn't tell


End file.
